Protection against counterfeiting of securities, particularly banknotes, is of substantial importance in commerce. The more an effort is made to produce securities which can not be counterfeited, the fewer will be attempts at counterfeiting and the more a trust in the securities or value-carrying paper will be generated. It is of course beneficial to the economy of the country making the securities to make such an effort.
A high degree of protection from counterfeiting is attained by making the cost of producing a counterfeit security so high that counterfeiting becomes unprofitable and/or the probability of legal interdiction of counterfeiting is high.
Because of recent developments in reproduction technology (color scanners, color copiers, automatic presses) sophisticated apparatus has been made available to an ever widening circle of personnel with which the components of an image of a code or authenticating mark can be imitated comparatively easily. Thus the degree of protection from counterfeiting presently depends more on the supporting material, particularly the paper used. To increase the degree of protection from counterfeiting, special paper particularly with watermarks, security strips and blended fibers can be used.